Confession (1937)

A cabaret singer (Kay Francis) shoots and kills a man (Basil Rathbone) in cold blood in front of a crowd of witnesses including the young schoolgirl (Jane Bryan) the man has seduced. During the murder trial, the woman remains silent and refuses to defend herself. A remake of the 1935 German film MAZURKA starring Pola Negri and directed by Joe May, who was an early pioneer in German cinema before emigrating to the U.S. and directing movies like THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS. Though not credited, the film also seems indebted to the 1908 play MADAME X which had previously been made into films in 1916, 1920, 1929 and in 1937, the same year of the release of CONFESSION. It's the typical Kay Francis formula. She suffers exquisitely as she goes from a celebrated opera singer to a dyed blonde drifting from cabaret to cabaret. Rathbone is suitably slimy as the roue who is the cause of her downfall. It's all rather musty and for Kay Francis fans only. With Ian Hunter, Donald Crisp, Laura Hope Crews and Veda Ann Borg.